


A Sword Saint's Heart

by HufflepuffKat



Category: Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 | Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Gifted Student Syndrome, Jealousy, Kinda, Magic, Mutual Pining, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Warnings May Change, Workaholic OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28789284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffKat/pseuds/HufflepuffKat
Summary: Kure is a 'Gifted Student' filled with the need to spend countless hours studying for the slight hope that she could maybe once again reach the grades that she effortlessly achieved during her childhood. That is, until one day she stepped off a train and landed in a fantasy world.Not long after, she is saved by the perfect image of a chivalrous knight. An ordinary person would have fallen in love and called it a day. But Kure isn't an ordinary person.No, now she believes she now has a new standard to live up to! And she isn't going to let silly things such as 'the need to sleep', 'her emotional wellbeing', or 'her safety' get in her way!
Relationships: Reinhard van Astrea/OC, Reinhard van Astrea/Original Female Character
Comments: 15
Kudos: 41





	1. The overachiever is forced to drop out

The mid-summer sun was setting deep as the colour of orange was slowly drowned out by a deep dark blue, and still, Kure sat in the library, neck-deep into a textbook. Why did it matter that it was a mid-summer sun that had set? Because the sun sets a lot later in summer than it does in winter. Today the sun set at 7:00 pm, and Kure's library usually closed at 6:30 pm, but Kure had been so strongly possessed by the words of the textbook she hadn't noticed the time, nor the librarian's calling the other students to leave.

"Miss Nakamura?" A stern voice shattered Kure's trance.

She looked up from her book and turned to see the head librarian looking at her with a smile that was just a little too tight.

"Miss Nakamura, the library is closed, you really must go home now." The librarian said curtly.

Kure looked at the clock and blinked in surprise.

“I lost track of time again, I am so, so sorry! I’ll put the books away right now and leave.” Kure got up from her seat and bowed deeply to the librarian in apology, before turning to pile up the seven books she had read today into a neat stack.

“I’ll take care of that, Miss Nakamura.”

“But I couldn’t-”

“I really must insist, Miss Nakamura.” Kure was interrupted by the librarian through gritted teeth.

Kure looked down guiltily before bowing once more in goodbye, hurriedly collecting her stationary and stuffing it into her satchel before heading towards the exit. Slinging the satchel over her shoulder, Kure tugged down on her amber sweater before absentmindedly checking her skirt’s pocket to make sure she hadn’t forgotten her phone.

She couldn’t blame the librarian for wanting to get her out of there. Kure regularly lost track of time while at the library, forcing the librarians to have to stay behind longer than they should need to just get her out. A small blush dusted Kure’s cheeks. It was so embarrassing, she couldn’t even keep track of time properly, and ended up causing trouble for other people.

If only she was better. If she worked harder, surely, she wouldn’t have had to take so long to do something as simple as understanding the advanced readings.

Kure had been considered a gifted student since she was in elementary school. Often praised by teachers for her talent and problem-solving skills. Kure had felt growing pressure on her shoulders as she got older and her sheer natural talent stopped being enough to maintain the level of excellence that was expected of her.

She wasn’t smart like people thought. She knew that. If she were smart, she wouldn’t be struggling so hard to do something as simple as maintaining straight A’s. A smart person would have done it in half the effort and earned a few ‘S’ grades too.

It is what was expected of her after all. That is what she needed to do to be worth the investment her parents had made in her. She was such a failure. Kure sugged her shoulders and tugged at her hair painfully. 

It was starting to get dark now. She picked up her pace as she navigated her way towards the train system. She felt a slight wave of relief as she entered the rivers of people making their way in and out of the station.

As she mindlessly headed towards her platform, she felt a strange wave of dizziness. Now, this certainly wasn’t the first time she had felt a little weak in the head after studying, but for some reason, this felt different in a way she couldn’t put her finger on.

She pulled out her phone and swiped her train pass and waited by the platform. The best thing about living in the city was that you never had to wait long for the train.

She felt another wave of dizziness and rubbed at her eyes from behind her glasses. Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t that tired, as it wasn’t that late for her. She has only ever got dizzy spells when she was studying at home past midnight.

Her train arrived and she stepped inside. The seats were all taken, so she grabbed onto one of the grips hanging from the roof of the carriage. She was only three stops away from her own, surely, she could last that long.

Two stops passed while she was in a trance-like state. It started to feel like she was floating in her own body, like her soul wasn’t tethered properly.

The third stop came, she made her way to the carriage doors. The doors opened. She stepped out and was blinded by light. She raised her hands in front of her glasses in reflex while her eyes adjusted to the sudden sunlight.

Sunlight? The sun should be long gone by now. Kure looked up at the sky – Sky? Hadn’t she just been underground? – and saw that it was mid-day. She immediately looked behind her and saw that the train she had just been in was no longer there, nor was the train station, nor the tracks, nor anything else she could recognise.

She was in a marketplace. But not like any marketplace she had seen before. Some of the people here that didn’t look like they were human. Sounds of chatter burst roared, smells of exotic foods burned her nose as her senses become hyperactive. Kure shut her eyes and shook her head in disbelief, but when she opened them the marketplace was still there.

For the briefest moments, she considered the possibility that they were cosplays, and she was in some kind of convention, but no, these were far too detailed, to realistic, and more importantly, the atmosphere was wrong. Conventions had this air of excitement because they were an event that was a break from the mundane, but the air here was settled like it was any ordinary day.

Then what about a dream? She might have fallen asleep on the train! She immediately looked at her hands to count her fingers, a trick she had learned in her teens that would reveal to her if she was dreaming. However, she counted all ten of her fingers perfectly fine. This was not a dream.

The air within her lungs became thick, and suddenly it took all her concentration to breathe. _What is going on? How can this be real? Am I insane? What is going on? How can this be real? Am I insane? What is going on? How can this be real? Am I insane?_

_AmIinsane?AmIinsane?AmIinsane?AmIinsane?AmIinsane?_

A street performer shouted an incantation and a statue made of stone rose from the ground five meters in front of her. She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. This was real. This was actually real.

She stared at the street performer in bewilderment, who continued to make different shaped from the earth. _‘It’s so beautiful.’_ How could this be real? It felt like a childhood fantasy, like how she used to dream of being taken to fairyland and seeing magic and knights and princesses.

She took a deep breath. She couldn’t let herself get swept away by a fantasy, there had to be a logical explanation for how she got here.

Now, contrary to what one might believe, Kure wasn’t _just_ a nerd for her deep commitment to doing nothing but study and her lack of social life. She was a fan of pop culture. She didn’t get to divulge in it much, but she loved the way science fiction and fantasy presented concepts of other worlds with different laws of reality, time travel, and magic. A beautiful dream. _No_. The concept of the existence of infinite parallel universes was founded in real-life science. It wasn’t a dream, it could be accepted as a logical explanation.

So, she wasn’t completely ignorant of the idea that she could have been teleported to an alternate universe. She questioned the absurdity of it, but the idea came to mind. She didn’t have any other explanations for what was going on, so she was forced to go along with that one.

So, it seemed she had stepped through an interdimensional wormhole and entered a universe with a different set of physics, where it seemed magic of all things was real. She was lucky to be alive, honestly, she could have landed in a universe where the natural temperature was ten times hotter than on earth, or a world without oxygen, or even a world that instantly vaporised anyone wearing the colour orange. That was the thing with the infinite universe theory, literally, anything could be possible in one of the infinite other dimensions. 

But she had her final exams in three weeks! A thought came into her head which she immediately dismissed. Stupid, _stupid!_ There was no point worrying about something like that. Considering that her world had received no visitors from this one, it was highly unlikely that this world didn’t have its own method of creating a way back, or at least a well-known one, and the likelihood of another wormhole naturally taking her back was one in infinity. There was no way she’d be able to go home to do her exams. (And if she did get home, surely her university would allow an exception for her to sit the exam separately?)

She took another deep breath to calm her nerves.

She was here to stay. In that case, she needed a survival plan. Logically, the solution to being introduced to any new environment comes in three stages. Readjust, establish, prosper.

To readjust, she needed to learn the new rules of this universes, like how to read the and the laws of the land. Then she could use her new understanding to establish herself a long-term living situation. Then finally once she was stable could see if she could use her understanding of her world’s technology and ideas to prosper.

She walked over to a nearby stall and glanced over the food absentmindedly. Most of it looked familiar to her, which was a relief, but not really why she approached the stall. The stall’s owner noticed her approach and greeted her.

“Hello, miss, would you like to buy some appas?” Kure was shocked that the man spoke the same language as her. She had been hoping to check if the language of the people here at least used sounds that she could reproduce with her own mouth.

The fact that they shared the same language felt impossible, but then again, the fact that she was here at all could be called impossible. She tried her best to not let the shock reach her face.

“No, sorry, I’m just browsing right now.” She said bowing slightly.

The man hesitated, looking Kure over, before giving a slightly strained smile, “Let me know if you change your mind then, lass.”

Kure smiled politely at him and moved on.

She didn’t neglect to notice that the word for apples was different, but what she had found was a lot better than she expected. So, she could at least communicate.

What next?

As a student that had always too busy studying to do sports or have any hobbies, Kure lacked physical skills she could rely on to get work, so the next on her to-do list was learning to read and write. Glancing at the street signs, she knew she wasn’t as lucky on that front as she had been with language.

She couldn’t recognise any of these symbols from anywhere. Still, that wasn’t too discouraging. If the language they spoke was Japanese, that meant the writing was also limited to the syllables the Japanese language was limited to. That meant that if she was lucky, she could limit the writing to 71 possible symbols, unless the writing split the ‘vowels’ and ‘consonants’ like in the English writing system, which in that case she could lower the number of symbols even further!

There was always the chance that they had multiple writing systems, or used something like Kanji, but she remained hopeful. There was a good chance that if she was right, she could memorize the writing within the day if she worked hard enough.

But how to check her theory? If she went up to a person and told them she couldn’t read and ask them to read a sign for her, it was likely that they would reject her request thinking she was uneducated and from a lower class. It was the cruel reality of her world that people that lived comfortable lives often felt uncomfortable in the presence of those that didn’t.

Luckily for her, she had a different method she could try. She readjusted her glasses and then, very carefully, she picked a store sign that only had three characters on it.

She walked up to a man that was eating an apple close to it and gently tapped him on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, sir, I’m afraid my glasses are faulty, and I need to get them replaced, could you please read that sign for me?” She asked with an embarrassed smile.

“Sure,” the man replied, reading the sign for her without much thought. It was a three-syllable word, implying that her 71 character theory was right.

“Thank you, sir.” She bowed to the man and as she walked away, she pulled out her notebook and a pen from her satchel and quickly took note of the three characters’ meaning. Looking at the three characters she frowned. Continuing that way was going to end up very disorganized and make it difficult for her to memorise later, so she drew up a hiragana chart and next to the corresponding symbols put down the new ones.

Quite enticed by the puzzle she had made for herself; she found a larger sign this time and asked another person to read the sign for her. She repeated this process over and over, not always getting a polite response from the person she asked. Twice she found that the same sound was represented by two different characters, and once that one character represented two similar syllables.

But through the course of three hours, she managed to pin down 72 characters and couldn’t find any new ones she didn’t recognize. For the second time that day, the sun was beginning to set.

The crowds of the main marketplace were far too loud for Kure to concentrate peacefully on reading the symbols, so she found a quieter street, and sat against a wall near an alley. It was out of the way and not very visible, so it was unlikely that if she practised here, she would be disturbed or questioned.

She only needed to memorize 72 characters, she told herself. Just 72. Anyone could do it.

But her eyes were beginning to feel droopy and she knew she was exhausted. She had been studying in the library that day since 10:00 am, meaning she had already studied for nine hours before her arrival here, then followed by the shock of being transferred into a different dimension, and then three hours of questioning people to jot down every single character she could find, well, that was a lot of energy.

She really ought to finish memorizing those characters, she told herself. If she wanted food tomorrow, she would have to get a job, and she didn’t have the skills to get a job unless she could read.

She read the characters again. Just a few more…

She was jostled awake by something tugging on her satchel.

“Shit, fuck.” A man’s gruff voice.

She brushed the sleep out of her eyes to see a man with grey hair and an ugly scar down his right cheek. The man was trying to take her bag, but as soon as he saw that she was awake he panicked and pulled a knife out and pointed it at her.

“Just-just keep quiet and give me the bag and you won’t die!”

Kure had never had a knife pointed at her before, so she was surprised that her instinctual reaction to having a knife in her face was to grab it with her hand and pull it away.

It shocked grey-hair too, which is probably why a second later Kure was up and running away as fast as she could. Which was not very fast. Kure hadn’t run in three years. Not just that, she was wearing a long so-called sensible skirt and was tightly clenching her own bleeding palm to her chest.

“GET BACK HERE YOU BITCH!”

She could hear the sound of grey-hair’s footsteps getting closer. Oh god, he was going to catch her! She was going to die! Hot tears slipped down her cheeks as she screamed.

“Help me! Somebody, please help me!”

Her vision blurred in her own tears and she closed her eyes in fear. Her stride was broken as she collided with something solid and warm. She hesitantly opened her eyes and looked up to catch a glimpse of red. Red hair, she realized was the first thing she saw, followed by blue eyes.

“Alright, I’ll help.” The man said with a gentle smile.


	2. Two Fateful Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kure meets the two people that will strongly influence how she views this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to give a huge thanks to DatSonyat, who has been a huge help to me!

The man with red hair took Kure’s shoulder and pulled her behind him in a swift but gentle motion. Kure turned around just fast enough to see him catch grey-hair’s wrist just before the man’s blade could strike his chest.

The air seemed to leave Kure’s chest as she realized just how close to catching her grey-hair had been. The blow that the red-haired man caught had been intended for her. If the red-haired man hadn’t appeared, she would be dead. If the red-haired man had appeared  _ just a second later _ , she would be dead.

“Stay out of this!” Grey-hair growled in anger, before looking up at the red-haired man’s face. Grey-hair’s eyes widened as his face paled. He became a perfect statue of terror.

“I am afraid I cannot.” The red-haired man said, his tone almost had a note of pity. Kure couldn’t understand why the atmosphere had shifted so suddenly. Why did the grey-haired man look so afraid? And even more so, why did the red-haired man sound so guilty.

“Sword Saint! I swear I didn’t-” Grey hair dropped his blade and raised his other hand to show that it was empty, “Please, just, just let me go!”

Kure saw the red-haired man’s shoulders droop, whether it was in relief or disappointment, she couldn’t be sure as she couldn’t see his face.

Grey-hair suddenly dropped to the ground, and the red-haired man’s hand was in a striking posture where his head had been. Kure blinked, realising what had just happened. Amazing! How could he move so fast?

The red-haired man turned and smiled gently at Kure.

“Don’t worry, I will have this man brought to the dungeons.” The man’s glance lowered to Kure’s hand and his expression shifted into something Kure could only describe as guilt, although she couldn’t understand why. “My apologies, if I had been there sooner, I could have prevented you from being hurt. May I?”

The red-haired man gestured for Kure to give him her injured hand. Kure was still very much confused and did so in a daze. The red-haired man’s touch was gentle as he wrapped her hand with his. Tiny lights began to sparkle around his hands, and Kure couldn’t help but stare in awe. When her rescuer let go of her hand, the cut was gone.

“Thank-thank you!” Kure said, a heat welling in her cheeks. Everything about this man was elegant and skilful. His expressions, words, and actions down to the finest detail could only be fitting of a model knight. He was just… He was just…

He was just so cool! What else could this beating in Kure’s chest be anything but admiration for his skills? She wanted to learn magic! She wanted, no, she  _ needed _ to reach the level of the man before her. The thing he had done to heal her hand was magic, right? What else could it be? That was it! Kure had decided, she was going to learn magic.

Icarus just set his eyes on Apollo.

“My name is Reinhard, what is yours, miss?” Reinhard asked, tilting his head.

“Nakamura Kure.” Said, before remembering that she wasn’t in Japan anymore, “That’s first name Kure, last name Nakamura.”

“Miss Nakamura, then.” Reinhard greeted, bowing his head slightly.

“U-um,” Kure said, cheeks flushing as she tugged on her satchel strap. She was no longer able to contain the question at the tip of her tongue, “What did that man mean when he called you ‘Sword Saint’?”

Reinhard’s eyes widened at the question as if he had never heard of it before.

“Are you not from Lugnica?” He asked, startling Kure.

Kure knew that it was not wise to tell the full truth. He would think she was a liar or a madwoman. At the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to the man who had just saved her life. All she could do was give him something in between.

“No… I’m not.” She said, still glancing away. Kure hated lying to people who didn’t deserve it, if Reinhard was a danger to her, she wouldn’t have had a problem lying to him at all. But for some reason, she just knew he wouldn’t do that. She couldn’t lie, so at best, she could be vague. “I’m from somewhere really far away. To, to be honest, I didn’t really come here willingly, so I don’t even know where ‘Lugnica’ is or how to get back home, or anything really…”

“You were taken here against your will?!” Reinhard interrupted Kure’s rambling. His lips were curled into a frown as his eyebrows were knit with concern.

“Yes.” It wasn’t a lie, even if she couldn’t say for sure that she was brought here by anything sentient. Kure came here against her will.

“Then do you have a place to stay?” He asked. Kure shook her head. “You are welcome to stay at my place as a guest.”

Kure’s eyes widened in surprise at how readily Reinhard made the offer. She was a complete stranger to him, and he was willing to let her into his home wanting nothing in return. He must be incredibly kind. Which is why...

“I am afraid I couldn’t possibly accept,” Kure said, “you have already saved my life. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking advantage of your kindness any more than I already have.”

“It would be no trouble for me.” Reinhard tried to reassure her. “As a knight, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving a maiden without shelter, especially in a foreign land.”

Kure desperately wanted to say yes. It would be so easy. Something in her gut wanted to stay near Reinhard for some reason. It was probably gratitude? She must want to pay him back. Plus, it felt safe with him. But she couldn’t! She would be asking for too much! He would think she was too needy.

“Perhaps you know where I could get a job?” Kure asked, “I was a scholar in my home country, and I am pretty confident that I teach myself how to read by the end of the day. If I could get a job, then I’ll be able to pull… my… own… weight.”

As Kure spoke, she had suddenly become self-conscious. She must look ridiculous. What was she thinking? She shouldn’t have mentioned not being able to read yet, now she looks arrogant. Even worse, calling herself a scholar, how pretentious. She was a student, which meant she was still learning, ‘scholar’ made her look like she thought she was intelligent. She knew she wasn’t.

While Kure was scolding herself, Reinhard frowned.

“I’m afraid not. I apologize that I can’t even do that.” Reinhard looked down. He followed his eyebrows, before pulling a small leather pouch out from within his cloak. “At least allow me to give you this.”

Kure hesitantly took the pouch and looked inside. Silver coins. Money, perhaps?

“You can use this to pay for food and shelter for a few days while you search for employment.”

“I-I can’t just-” Kure scrambled to give it back, but Reinhard shook his head and wrapped her hands around the pouch. The touch made Kure’s face warm.

“Please allow me to do just this little thing.” The look in Reinhard’s eyes resembled a puppy’s. Kure couldn’t deny that she needed the money. She was already hungry, and who knows how long it would take her to find a job. She didn’t even know where to look! She had never had a job before either, her parents had refused the idea because it would be a distraction to her studies. So…

“I’ll pay you back then!” Kure promised.

Reinhard simply smiled.

Then it was quiet. Kure realised that she didn’t really have anything else to stay. The moment lingered. Kure didn’t want to say goodbye just yet, but she was probably wasting Reinhard’s time.

“Then... I will see you again,” Kure said, before bowing in fair well.

“Yes,” Reinhard looked slightly uncomfortable saying so. “Goodbye.”

Kure hesitantly turned away to turn towards the main marketplace.

“Wait!” Reinhard suddenly shouted. She looked back, “If you need my help, go to Astrea House in Hakuruchuri.”

She thanked him once again and went on her way.

* * *

It was easier to think after Kure had some food in her belly and proper rest. She had been a little shocked when she found out how much the coins Reinhard had given her were worth. ‘A few days’ indeed.

Just one of those coins had paid for a night at an inn. Another had bought her breakfast with some copper coins as change.

The next time she saw Reinhard, she wasn’t sure if she was going to scold him or apologize to him for accepting that much. It made her wonder why he was willing to just give that much money away. Grey-hair had recognized him, so maybe he was famous or something?

Kure had memorized this world’s alphabet that morning, but that didn’t mean she was fluent in reading yet. She was now practising by reading street signs when a particular one caught her attention.

_ ‘Cassia’s Magical Bookshop’ _

The words were written in purple on a dark green board. The door to the shop was wood painted in the same shade of purple. To the left of the door, there was a window which Kure could see bookshelves through.

Kure did decide she wanted to learn magic before, and maybe she would learn something useful? Kure approached the door and pushed it open, causing a bell to chime.

“Greetings dearie, are you looking for anything in particular?” An old lady said to Kure’s right. She was behind a green counter, sitting on a chair. Her hair was thin and grey, and her eyes were green. She was giving a polite smile, but Kure could tell that the lady was bored from the glazed look in her eyes.

Kure opened her mouth to answer but hesitated. She bit her lip as she looked over to the books. Truthfully, she didn’t think it would be wise for her to carry these around. Her book bag would only be able to carry one or two at a time, and she didn’t have a safe place to keep them.

If the city had a public library, that is where she would have preferred to go there, but she hadn’t seen one throughout her entire day of wandering.

“Um…” She said, “How much would one of your books cost?”

The old lady’s brow crinkled, “It would depend on the book, dearie.”

“How… how much would I have to pay you to just read the books here for the day?” Kure asked.

The old lady’s eyes focused. She raised an eyebrow and her polite smile dropped slightly. Suddenly Kure felt panicked, fully aware of how weird that just sounded.

“It-it’s just that I don’t really have a safe place to-to keep them and I don’t want them to be damaged and I’ll only read them once so it’s probably better for both of us if you keep them so you can sell them to someone who’ll give them a good home and I promise I won’t damage any of them.” After the long sentence, Kure had to catch her breath. In, out, in out. Her heart was racing. She really didn’t want this lady to think she was stingy or something. She was probably going to get scolded anyway.

The old lady did not scold her. Instead, she chuckled.

“Hehehe. What a strange request. My name is Cassia, and you know what, sure, why not.” Cassia brought a hand to her chin, as she pondered for a moment. “If you give me four silver, and indeed none of the books are damaged, I’ll give you two back at the end of the day.”

Kure’s eyes widened.

“Are-are you sure?” She asked, not quite believing it.

“If you had given me a different reason, I would have probably just told you to leave but…” Cassia looked down, her eyes softening as she saw something that only she could see, “I can already tell that you seem to care about what happens to these books. Also, it amused me. Besides, it doesn’t actually cost me anything to have you look at them.”

Kure remembered that books were a lot more expensive before the invention of the printing press. These books had to have been handwritten, so they were probably each worth a lot more. In that case, four coins to read all of them was definitely cheap.

Kure opened the pouch and took out the four coins. She would have five silver coins and some copper coins left after this. If she got two silver coins back at the end of the day, that would leave her with seven total, which she believed would last her three more days.

Hopefully, she would learn something useful.

Kure gave Cassia the coins, “Where would I look for books on the basics?”

Cassia gestured to the shelf towards the back with an amused smile. Kure smiled and nodded.

Looking at the titles she grabbed,  _ ‘Understanding the six elements’ _ ,  _ ‘Controlled Mana; A guide to using your gate efficiently’ _ ,  _ ‘Spirit Arts; A Practical Guide’ _ ,  _ ‘The Fundamental Components of Spellcasting’ _ and  _ ‘Elemental Applications’ _ . Shuffling the books into a pile, she moved over to the back corner of the room and sat on the floor.

She placed the pile of books on her right, and moved the top in front of it, and opened it, becoming absorbed.

She closed the book in front of her and placed it on the pile of books on her left and reached to grab the next book on the pile of her right, only to find that there wasn’t one.

Kure blinked and took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the window in the front of the room. It was dark outside.

Dammit, not again.

Kure groaned and stood up, stretching her muscles.

Cassia jumped up from her chair.

“Dearie! Dearie, can you hear me?” She asked, her voice a mixture of panic and concern.

“Yeah?” Kure said, a little dazed at the old lady’s behaviour. Kure had taken Cassia for a woman who was apathetic to everything that didn’t amuse her. To see a complete shift in attitude so soon after meeting her was enough to pull the rug from under her feet.

“Thank the dragon, I have been trying to get your attention for hours!” Cassia limped over, using the wall as support in one hand and carrying a glass of water in another, “It was like you were in some kind of trance. Here, have some water.”

Kure took the glass and sipped the water before she began to chug it as she suddenly realized how thirsty she was. Was she always this dizzy? Her head felt heavy.

“Sorry about that,” Kure said, her exhaustion visible in her voice, “I have this thing where I hyperfocus when I read something I find interesting. I completely lose track of time and the world around me.”

“Silly girl…” Cassia hummed in thought, and her attitude shifted back to the apathetic one she had before.

“Well, it’s getting late dearie, you should probably go home.”

Kure nodded, “Yeah, I suppose I should find an inn.”

Cassia’s eyebrows raised for just a second.

“You don’t have a place to stay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m new in town,” Kure replied.

“I have a spare room upstairs; you can stay with me.”

“I couldn’t-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have you work tomorrow for it.” Cassia dismissed Kure’s refusal before she could finish it.

“A job?” Kure was surprised, where did this come from?

“Well, since you said you were new in town. What, don't you want it?”

“No!” Kure shouted, before she lowered her voice, “I’m just surprised.”

“Good, because these old bones could use some help.” Cassia opened the door that was against the back wall, revealing a staircase. Before she started to climb up, she hesitated. “My daughter was supposed to help me but well…”

The words died in Cassia's mouth before she could finish them. Kure was curious, so she made a humming sound to encourage Cassia to continue, but the old lady stayed silent as she went up the stairs.


	3. The worst kind of prodigy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kure spends all her time researching and it really pisses Cassia off

Kure could guess that Cassia probably wasn’t the best boss in the world, but as someone who had never had a job before, she didn’t think Cassia was that bad.

Kure had worked at the bookstore for a few days now and in that time, she had come to learn that Cassia deeply cared about many things. But that was a closely guarded secret. Cassia tried really hard to pretend she didn’t care, but Kure wasn’t falling for it.

No matter how apathetic she looked at customers when they walked in, or how coldly she scolded Kure when she made a mistake, Kure couldn’t easily forget that this old lady gave her a job the moment she found out she was homeless.

One of the things that Cassia cared deeply about but refused to admit was the many books in her store. Kure was given the job of keeping the shelves tidy and moving the books around, so she knew this fact well.

Kure had to routinely rotate the entire store’s shelves to prevent any one book from being exposed to the sun from the front window for multiple days in a row. The books had to be placed perfectly upright to avoid damage to the spine and pushed all the way into the shelve with no part sticking over the edge. Kure had even been scolded for not pulling a book out from a shelf incorrectly once.

_ ‘What are you doing, dearie? Grabbing the book from the headcap? From the spin, dearie, from the spine!’ _

But as strict as she was, Cassia never refused to let Kure read one of the books in her free time. Although Cassia had set a ‘one book at a time’ rule on days that the store was open, which based on Cassia’s last reaction to Kure falling into one of her study trances, was more hidden concern than anything else. Because another thing that Cassia cared about but wouldn’t admit it was people, which for some reason included Kure in particular.

Surprisingly, Cassia paid Kure too. Kure assumed that the trade was going to be a room, food, and access to books for manual labour at best, but Cassia insisted that she wasn’t a slave driver.

It was night and Kure was cooking dinner for the two. Cassia was working the budget (something Kure had almost offered to do before she realised, she still didn’t quite understand the exact value of money yet).

Kure had learned to cook a little in home economics so she didn’t mind. Chopping the vegetables and putting them into the pot kept her hands busy while allowing her mind to wander over what she had learned that day.

The problem she was having was she didn’t know her elemental affinity. She had already learned the makeup of several spells for each of the elements, but until she knew her affinity, she couldn’t make any practical advancements.

Kure accidentally dropped one of the pieces of carrot when she was throwing them into the pot and reflexively went to pick it up, burning her hand in her foolishness.

Kure hissed as she moved to where the sink was but before she got there an angry old lady was at her side grabbing at her hand and spewing insults.

“Are you stupid, dearie? You ought to know fire is hot by now! You can clean up any mess after the fire is out and the stove has cooled.”

As Cassia was ranting, a ring of blue surrounded her hands and the burning sensation faded.

“Do you have a water affinity?” Kure asked, her curiosity overcoming any timidness she was feeling after being scolded.

Cassia nodded.

“And that was healing magic, right?”

“What do you think it was?” Cassia snapped as if she hadn’t just shown her true colours by healing Kure’s hand.

“I just wanted to be sure, because it looked different last time when Reinhard healed my cut.” Kure tried to explain herself.

“Reinhard?” Cassia’s eyebrow raised at the mention of his name.

“Yeah, he had red hair. But he didn’t have a blue circle around his hands, but little lights… Do you think it might have been spirit arts?” Kure asked, completely oblivious.

“If it’s Reinhard it could have been…”

“You have heard of him?” Kure asked, eyes widening.

“Yes,” Cassia answered, as she aged an extra twenty years in three minutes, “I have heard of Reinhard.”

Kure just hummed; her mind already moved onto something else.

“Miss Cassia, if you’re a water affinity, could you find out what my elemental affinity is?” Kure asked.

“What, you don’t know?”

“No.”

Cassia just sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

“Maybe after dinner is finished. Don’t want that pot boiling over do we?”

“Eep!” Kure rushed back to the pot to finish her job.

* * *

Cassia didn’t end up examining Kure’s affinity that night, Instead, Cassia chose to wait until the next day, which was ~coincidentally~ the day that the bookshop was closed that week.

Cassia also insisted on doing it outside the house and outside the city in a nice, empty field. Kure got the impression that Cassia thought she was some reckless kid that would try a spell immediately after she found out her affinity without considering her surroundings or the consequences.

Kure  _ wasn’t _ that reckless. But she wasn’t going to say anything.

Cassia closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows in focus. The air around Kure tinted blue for a few seconds before fading.

“My, my, how special.” Cassia said, putting Kure on edge, “It seems your affinity is Yang magic.”

“Yang magic?” Kure blinked. She wasn’t expecting that. Yang magic was really rare, and Kure wasn’t anything special. She had read about a few different Yang spells though.

The components of a spell were; prepare mana, visualise, gate, and incantation. Yang spells were mostly focused on enhancement. She also needed to be careful to use something lower level to prevent damage to her gate.

“Now, now, calm down dearie. Just because you know your affinity doesn’t mean that you can cast a spell ju-”

“Sira.” Kure spoke the incantation before Cassia could finish her sentence and started running at break-neck speeds. Kure laughed as she felt the wind in her face. As an unathletic nerd, Kure had always been secretly jealous of the fastest runners in her class, so a speed spell had been the first thing that had come to Kure’s mind. She wasn’t running at a supernatural speed, as that would require the addition of ‘El’ to the incantation, nor did she have super fast reflexes which required the ‘Ul’ prefix which was a rank above that, but for now, she could say she would have been the fastest runner in her class if she had been back in high school.

In Kure’s excitement, she stopped paying attention to the spell and how long ago she had cast it. The spell cut off suddenly, and the momentum sent her tumbling. Dammit. How stupid was she?! She should have paid better attention. Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!

While she just sat there scolding herself, Cassia stumbled over. She looked exhausted, and Kure knew why.

“I’m sorry I messed up,” Kure said.

“Wha… what?” Cassia seemed confused.

“I promise I’ll do better next time to meet your expectations.” The line sounded well-rehearsed because it was. Kure had said it countless times to her parents and all the teachers she had disappointed whenever she didn’t get the mark that they expected her to get. The mark she could have gotten if she were just smarter. If she just worked a little bit harder.

“You… you cast the spell on your first try?” Cassia said, rather shell-shocked. Kure didn’t catch her tone.

“Yet I lost focus at the end and ruined it, I know.”

Cassia just groaned and suggested that they go back to the bookstore. Kure accepted that as the result of her failure.

* * *

“Miss Cassia, can I read these books on Yang magic?” Kure asked.

Cassia was reading a book which she was carefully hiding the title. Started by Kure’s sudden question she rushed to get her out of the room.

“Yeah, yeah, why… why don’t you read them upstairs on my desk, I have a few damaged books on it, but just… just put them to the side.”

“Okay, Miss Cassia!”

Kure rushed up the stairs. She had some studying to do!

Cassia hadn’t been lying about the damaged books, but Kure hadn’t thought that they would be  _ this _ damaged. She had imagined a torn or missing page, or a stain on the front cover. These looked like they had been in a storm from the ripped spine, discoloured pages and overall poor shape. Kure couldn’t imagine that these had originally been Cassia’s books. Maybe she was trying to salvage them?

‘ _ Good luck, Miss Cassia, you’re going to need a miracle to do that.’ _

Kure chuckled to herself before freezing.

_ ‘Or maybe, just some magic.’ _

The Yang affinity wasn’t  _ just _ enhancements, Kure had read in  _ ‘Elemental Applications’ _ that it was also possible to repair damaged items but didn’t go into detail. Kure turned to the specialised books she grabbed and smiled with a new goal in mind.

* * *

Someone shook Kure’s shoulders, drawing her out of her intense focus. She looked up to see Cassia’s displeased neutral face. Not to be confused with Cassia’s bored neutral face or her hiding-that-she-cares neutral face.

“Miss Cassia?” Kure was confused, what had she done this time?

Cassia sighed, “The shop is opening in a few hours dearie. I can’t believe you actually read all night long, like a child. It’s unhealthy. Get washed up and eat something before you’re late.”

Kure got up from the desk and stretched.

“Yes, Miss Cassia!”

Her only reply was a long sigh.

Kure scurried to get ready for work.

* * *

This repeated the next day, and then the next. It had been three days since Kure had slept and yet it was Cassia that looked exhausted. Cassia had kept her mouth shut on the matter, but Kure was beginning to sense her growing irritation.

The fourth night, Cassia disturbed Kure from her studies before the old lady went to bed.

“Go to sleep dearie, you’re going to make mistakes and damage the books if you keep doing this.” Cassia’s voice was stern, but the way she pulled at her lip indicated concern.

“But Miss Cassia, I think I almost got this!”

Cassia groaned.

“What are you researching anyway? Is it really worth all your free time? Don’t you have anything else you’d rather do? Friends you want to see?”

“I’m learning repair magic.” Kure said, answering the first question and paying no mind to Cassia’s other questions.

“What?”

“I think I have almost learnt enough to make a practical attempt.”

Kure looked up excitedly at Cassia. Cassia’s left eye twitched.

Cassia finally opened her mouth after a few seconds.

“I don’t-”

“Let me show you!” Kure grabbed at a chipped glass of water that Cassia had left beside her desk the previous night. She quickly downed the remaining water. Ignoring the sudden realization that she was thirsty; Kure raised her hands over the glass.

Repair magic wasn’t the cure-all that many were led to believe. It relied on the caster’s understanding of the object to fix it. How it was shaped and put together. Kure didn’t know how a clock worked, so she wouldn’t be able to repair one, but because a glass was a simple shape, it wasn’t that hard to fix. A child could understand it, and Kure was at least as smart as a child.

The glass glowed white for a few seconds. The chip filled in and the glass almost looked brand-new. One could only just see a slight dip where the chip used to be. Kure frowned at that. She should be able to do better.

“Go to bed.” Cassia said, her voice now blatantly annoyed.

“But Miss Cassia, I was thinking of helping you restore these books like this.” Kure didn’t understand why Cassia was still insisting she should sleep. Didn’t she see that Kure was almost finished learning something that could be a great help to the store?

“Go. To. Bed.” Cassia said the words slowly. Kure got the message this time.

* * *

Cassia closed the bookshop early the next day. This made Kure excited because it meant she could get even more research done, but as she went to head upstairs the old lady blocked her path.

“Miss Cassia?” Kure asked.

In a swift movement, Cassia grabbed Kure’s ear and pulled down. Kure yelped in both shock and pain. Her hands flailed aimlessly as Cassia dragged her to the door and shoved her out.

“I don’t understand?” Kure said. Cassia just stared at her with dead eyes. “Do you need me to go on an errand for you? Why didn’t you say so-”

“Don’t come back until you have found some friends.” Despite the clearly compassionate intention behind the command, Cassia’s voice was stone cold.

Kure blinked. Why would Cassia care if-

Kure’s thought was stopped mid-sentence as Cassia slammed the door, leaving no room for arguments.

Kure stood there, dumbfounded for ten minutes. Find friends? No one had ever told her to do that before. If anything, her parents had discouraged it. Hanging out with friends would get in the way of her studies, or so had she been told.

Kure hung her head low and turned away from the shop and began to walk. Her eyes were watery as she felt a sting in her chest. She didn’t understand why. Her parents had just wanted what was best for her. They had been right. Right?

She collided with someone’s chest. Looking up she saw a man with lavender hair wearing a white uniform.

“Sorry!” Kure squeaked. Her cheeks heated in embarrassment as a nervousness seized her stomach. The memory of the grey-haired man flashed in her mind. What if the man got angry at her? Would he strike her?

“Don’t worry, it is also my fault for not paying attention while I was walking, miss.” The man reassured her. He had a formal tone and a stiff posture.

“Miss Nakamura?” A familiar voice said, and Kure relaxed as she saw that Reinhard was with this man.

“Mr Reinhard!” Kure smiled as she bowed her head to her saviour in greeting.

“Mr?” The man with lavender hair raised an eyebrow and sent a glance Reinhard’s way. Reinhard shook his head slightly as an amused smile ghosted his face.

Kure paid no attention to this as she scrambled to grab the leather pouch Reinhard had given her from her satchel.

“I got that job, so as promised, I will pay you back!” Kure gestured for Reinhard to take back the pouch enthusiastically.

“What brings you into town today?” Reinhard ignores Kure’s gestures as he smiles at her warmly.

Kure blinked. Reinhard’s appearance had made her forget what had just happened and her dull mood along with it.

“Oh, Miss Cassia, my boss, sent me out.” Kure was honestly shocked that it had left her mind.

“Did she send you on an errand then? I apologize for disturbing you while you were working.”

Wasn’t she the one that bumped into his friend? How could he be at fault? Why was he apologizing?

Kure shook her head to ease his mind anyway.

“That’s the strange thing though, it wasn’t a usual errand.”

The man with lavender hair just stood back and watched their conversation like it was a spectacle. Reinhard tilted his head, frowning slightly in concern, “What do you mean?”

“She said I wasn’t allowed to come back until I found some friends, but I work at a book shop?” Kure frowned in confusion. Her thoughts began to slip from her mouth, “I could understand her ordering me to sleep, because four days in a row without would affect my work, but why would she care if I had friends or not?”

She realized what had just happened and rushed to correct herself.

“Ah, sorry!” Kure blushed as she realized that she had been rambling, “That isn’t really your problem.”

Kure noticed that the pouch was still in her hands.

“Take it, I did promise.” She tried to shift the conversation back to repaying her debt.

Reinhard looked at the pouch and back at her face. His smile the slightest bit cunning, he turned to his friend.

“Julius, what’s the etiquette regarding a knight from a noble house accepting money from civilians?”

Julius blinked in confusion before understanding gleamed in his eyes.

“It would be considered shameful. Not to mention word could spread that they were accepting bribes.”

“Then, I apologize, Miss Nakamura, but I cannot accept this.” Reinhard refused the coin pouch politely.

“But this is just me paying back a debt, surely that is fine.” Kure tried to reason.

“I never said that I intended to be paid back, the money was a gift.” Reinhard said.

“But!...” Kure was becoming increasingly distressed as she realized that Reinhard wasn’t going to accept the money no matter what she said. She had made a promise though!

“If you insist on paying me back, I have a favour to ask of you.” Reinhard offered.


End file.
